Huge win for car owners! All TSBs to be made public.
The Center for Auto Safety just made the NHTSA (US Government) make public the full text of all TSBs from now on. They are the same organization that has petitioned the NHTSA & filed lawsuits to protect car owners over exploding gas tanks & other major safety issues.
Whenever you drive in your car, you are safer thanks in part to a lot of work over the years by this small but very effective consumer advocacy group.

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2004 Volkswagen Passat Owner Comments

Passat GLX 2.6L V6

Automatic transmission

178,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

in the past 18 months i have burned through three coils

VW seems to blow you off. three coils in 18 months and they say that's the breaks. What they really mean is tough sh*t. VW couldn't care less as shown by the issue with their diesel engines. Guess they hate the US customer base. I could say more but it's pointless. Three VW coils fry in 18 months and they just shrug their shoulders. Most VW service technicians and service managers a likely not as smart as the tools they use. VW management in Germany are thieves .

Passat GLS 2.8L V6

Automatic transmission

176,000 miles

So Ignition Coil was replaced Jan 2014 as preventative maintenance. Then started having issues. Finally tested it in Sept and my replacement was no good. Emailed the company and they offered to replace it because it was within a year. It is not 3 months later and we are throwing a misfire code. Sending it back to the supplier and telling them they can keep it. Looking to get a better one.

Passat GLS 1.8t

Automatic transmission

80,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

I was going over to my daughter's for dinner which is only 4 minutes away. During the drive, the car seemed to lose power, acting like it was going to stall. Since I was close, I drove into my daughter's driveway. At this time the engine and hood were smoking. I jumped out of the car and my son in law got a water hose and cooled the hood off and we popped the hood open. There was a very large fire on the passenger side of the engine. After the fire was out, we found melted hoses and wire assembly and lots of other damage. I'm still trying to get someone to repair it but being given the run a round. Fire was very scary and wondered what would have happened if I was on the interstate or some place there wasn't anything to put the fire out.

Passat GLS 1.8L Turbo

Automatic transmission

83,885 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Had to replace all four coil packs after about 40,000 kms, now all four are new. Coils quitting is a pain in the ass and dangerous as the catalytic converter fills with unburnt fuel and can catch on fire. or it can ruin the cat. i was luck that all mine died in city limits and i was able to limp the car home.

Passat 1.8L

Automatic transmission

52,000 miles

First time had a coil problem on my 2004 Volkswagen Passat was around November 2009, and had to replace the coil, car ran fine after that. Then 3 months later, another coil failed & had to be replaced. 3 months after a third coil failed, couldn't believe it!!! and just last week, which makes another 3 months, the 4th coil failed & had to have it replaced... what the f....!!! of course Volkswagen doesn't take any responsibilities for it, & didn't take it to them for replacement because they were going to charge me double for what it cost me at an auto service shop. another beef i have is i have to take my car to be fixed at a service shop where they perform emissions testing so they can obtain the code to run a test, can't be any auto service shop!!! of course not!!! the first year i had my car, it was great, loved it!!! now i can't wait to get rid of it!!!

Passat 4 cyl

Automatic transmission

111,000 miles

third time is a charm driving home tonight from work and the car looses power and the check engine light comes on i already know what it is the f------ coils again!!! so i decided to go to a store tomorrow and buy plastic lemons-attach them to my car and put a sign that will say DON'T LET A PASSAT HAPPEN TO YOU!!!!!!

Passat 4 cyl

Automatic transmission

90,100 miles

second time around took car to dealer said it was a fluke that it happened again! the dealer is about an hours drive from my home so its a real pain in the butt to get to and from the dealer the person at the desk said they thought that because the previous mechanic used after market parts it may have caused the problem to reoccur not it just happened again with VW parts

Passat GLS 1.8t

Automatic transmission

51,000 miles

I have a 2004 VW Passat that now has 56,000 miles on it. The warranty expired at 50,000 miles. When I had just under 51,000 miles, one of the coil packs went bad on it (it has 4 total). Three months later around 53,000 miles, another coil pack went bad. Then about 3 months later 56,000 miles, the third one went bad. Each of these repairs cost me about $150 at the VW service department. The frustrating thing about this is that VW had a recall on these coils for 2001-2003 model years. When I call VW, they are of no help and just tell me "sorry for the trouble and they will keep my complaint on file."

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